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ClearPower v0.7.1

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@github-actions github-actions released this 02 Oct 07:07
· 4 commits to main since this release
v0.7.1
fabfec0

ClearPower 0.7.1 — easier to adopt on a machine that is not covered yet

A follow-up to 0.7.0. Nothing here changes how power is measured; it makes the charge-control work
easier to finish for a laptop that is not supported yet, and makes a bad display calibration say so.

Windows: charge control

Lenovo is verified on hardware. HP is implemented against its published root\wmi interface, on the
same adapter, but not verified on HP hardware. Dell, ASUS, MSI and Acer detect their own
interface and report it; their charge setting is not mapped, so the buttons stay hidden rather than
writing a guess.

There is no universal route to a charge limit on Windows, which is worth stating plainly because it
is the reason support is per vendor: Microsoft does define a standard ACPI _DSM for a charge
throttle, and the control-method battery exposes _BTP, but both are evaluated by the kernel and
there is no documented user-mode way to reach them. The standard root\wmi battery classes are
read-only. The only remaining universal option is a signed kernel driver, which this project does
not ship — no service, no driver, no elevation. docs/charge-control.md has the
detail, the vendor table and the contract for adding one.

Three new things make that practical:

  • ClearPower.exe --charge-probe prints what the machine exposes: every backend's verdict, which
    vendor namespaces exist, and for the classes that look like battery or charge control their
    properties and methods. It ends with a short paste-ready block — version, OS, machine vendor and
    model, CPU, backends — so reporting an uncovered laptop is one step rather than a judgement call
    about which part of the dump matters.
  • ClearPower.exe --charge --dry-run prints the exact calls a command would make (thresholds,
    behaviour, saved limit) and makes none of them. Writing that wrapper also fixed a real bug: a plain
    read-only --charge used to write the saved limit to the embedded controller anyway.
  • ClearPower.exe --charge repair re-applies the saved limit. The app already did that after a
    resume, because some firmware forgets the thresholds; now it can be done without restarting.

Windows: a bad calibration now says so

The panel table is built from a running maximum of (battery − SoC − memory) at each brightness level,
so a sweep taken while the machine was busy flattens at the top. The machine this was developed on
produced (50, 1.302) (75, 1.302) (100, 1.302): a "calibrated" display whose brightness does
nothing, with nothing in the UI to suggest that re-running on a quiet machine would fix it.

Three or more collapsed top levels — or a sweep screen that did not measure as white — now sets a
message in Settings saying the calibration looks unreliable and to keep the machine idle, then
calibrate again.

Also

  • The apps box reuses its rows instead of rebuilding them every three seconds, so the layout no
    longer re-runs for nothing while the popover is open.
  • The README's hardware support table now matches docs/charge-control.md (it still said ThinkPad
    only for Windows charge limits), and adapter_max_w = 0 is documented as "Windows exposes no
    adapter rating", not "no adapter connected".

Scope and validation
Changed Windows charge CLI and vendor backends, calibration reporting, the apps box, README
Unchanged Power measurement, the conserved breakdown, charge behaviour on Lenovo, display calibration itself, macOS and Linux behaviour
Tested on Windows 11 (16 logical cores, Energy Meter RAPL present, 225 % scale), on battery and on AC
Verification Windows tests 35 → 42 plus the seven Python daemon tests; --charge, --dry-run, repair and --charge-probe run on this ThinkPad, and the dry run was confirmed to leave the saved limit and the EC untouched
Not verified The HP backend has not run on HP hardware; Dell, ASUS, MSI and Acer are detection-only. A second display at a different scale was also unavailable for the cross-monitor paths (unit tested only)

Install

  • Windows — ClearPower-Setup-0.7.1-x64.exe (per-user, no admin prompt; SmartScreen warns
    because the binary is not code-signed, choose More info › Run anyway) or the portable
    ClearPower-0.7.1-x64-portable.zip.
  • macOS — the DMG. The 0.6.0 charging helper remains compatible, so no helper update is needed.
  • Linux — clearpower_0.7.1_all.deb.

Verify downloads with the attached SHA256SUMS. Full list in
CHANGELOG.md.

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